Human Genetic Engineering

What if you could design your child before it was even born? What if you could cut out any life threatening diseases, make sure that your child is not susceptible to smoking addictions or alcoholism, and then make your child genius? Would you? Are you asking yourself how this could be done? Have you ever considered human genetic engineering?

What is Human Genetic Engineering?

Lets start by looking at the cell and the source of heritable traits. We know that all organisms are made up by cells and that new cells can only spring from existing cells. Cell growth depends upon the production of new cells and within each cell exists DNA. DNA contains the hereditary instructions need for each organism to grow and develop. Every parental organism gives the correct amount of DNA to its offspring. Humans give their children twenty-three chromosomes from each of the parents.

DNA looks something like a twisted staircase, and when in a condensed form, each DNA molecule is called a chromosome. Genes are formed in pairs are located in these chromosomes. During reproduction the gene pairs are split apart and randomly passed on to the offspring. During the replication of the gene pairs chance events such as mutations, can change their structure and prompt evolution.

Through human interference we can compose our own evolution by using genetic engineering. By using this genetic engineering, scientist have the means to isolate, cut and split different genes from different species, and then amplify the number of copies of the gene that they are interested in.

This process has four steps. First, enzymes are used to cut DNA molecules into smaller fragments. Second, the fragments are inserted into a cloning device, such as plasmids. Third, the fragments that are wanted are identified, and then copied. Fourth the fragment is inserted back into the same organism or possibly into a different one.

Historically, humans have used artificial selection to pass on desirable traits in livestock. Now researchers are trying to identifying and map the specific traits passed on in the human DNA. The Human Genome Project is currently working their way though 3.2 million gene pairs that exist in the twenty three pairs of human chromosomes.

Oh, Happy Day for Genetic Engineering!

Researcher, James M. Wilson, a pioneer in the field and headed the Institute for Gene Therapy at Pnn., has published the first document showing that was possible to add a gene that could have therapeutic effects. Based on those findings, Wilson performed an experiment on a person suffering from hypercholesterolemia (FH). This certain disease forbids the liver from processing cholesterol.

The procedure consisted of taking a piece of the persons liver and injecting correct copies of the genes into the flawed liver cells, and placing the piece of liver back into the person. Two years later, the results showed that the corrected cells were thriving. As a result to the cells, the person had reduced their cholesterol by twenty percent.

Cystic Fibrosis (CF), is another disease that is taking to genetic therapy. If a corrected gene could somehow enter the cells that line the lungs, it will then start producing the critical proteins that CF patients need. This has been done, although in small quantities. These results, however, have raised hopes that sometime in the future, CF may be curable.

The parade of genetically engineered marvels, during the past recent years, has been shocking: "Flavr-Savr" tomatoes that stay fresher longer; "giant salmon" that grow 37 times faster than the normal fish; "transgenic" pigs that are injected with human genes which causes them to produce milk with human protein that prevents blood clotting; and "supermice" injected with rat growth genes which makes them grow twice their normal size, are just a few.

The goal of genetic engineering is to modify genes in helpful ways, but this manner...

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

...The ability of humans to manipulate DNA is a mixed blessing
Genetically modified organisms are made moving the DNA from one species to another. DNA contains genes which code for proteins. For plants and bacteria; restriction enzymes are used to cut a DNA segment from a desired gene source and a bacterium plasmid. They are joined using ligase enzymes and inserted into the plant chromosome or host bacterium. For animals the recombinant DNA is injected into an embryo and transferred to a recipient mother. The organisms will now express a new protein. Proteins determine form and metabolism. Geneticengineering changes the natural DNA of living things, cutting across species boundaries.
Transgene’s effects vary with position. The foreign genes enter the host DNA haphazardly disrupting natural coding. Gene's only replicate faithfully because specialised proteins prevent most errors. Some organisms repair miscoding or have proteins that alternatively splice messenger RNA and thereby produce many different proteins from a single gene. Alien genes and the host's systems will to be unpredictable. In nature a trait is guaranteed by millennia of testing.
--------------------------------------------------
Much of the geneticengineering now being used commercially is in the agricultural sector.
Plants are genetically engineered to be resistant to herbicides, produce their own pesticides, have viral...

...GeneticEngineering:
Genetically Modified Humans
Amelia Cornejo-Terry
Biology 100, 2nd Semester
Ms. Houlihan
May 10, 2013
GeneticEngineering:
Genetically Modified Humans
In a world with imperfect and defective humans, society strives to become as perfect as the advances in the scientific world allow them to. Since the discovery of geneticengineering any organism can be modified as pleased with the desired traits chosen. Science has given man enough power to configure every human’s DNA, the genetic material that determines the makeup of all living cells (The American Heritage Science Dictionary, 2002). The miracle breakthrough of geneticengineering has opened up the possibilities for curing genetic deformations, producing better pharmaceuticals, reproductive technology, and countless other medical fields. However, with the potential for genetically engineered humans come great risks and responsibilities. Whether or not geneticengineering should be used to modify human beings remains questionable by our spiritual, moral, ethical, and legal perspectives. Now that this technology is in our hands, we should use it solely for the well-being of our people and not to fool with the intended course of nature.
The Process of...

...on HumanGeneticEngineering
The debate on whether humangeneticengineering should be researched and used as the main alternative solution to disease have been going on since the creation of the "humangeneticengineering" phenomenon. The ethical question is clear: should money be invested in humangeneticengineering and should we research it at all, even if it is formally criticized by all monotheistic religions? The ethical principles in conflict are beneficence (people with fatal diseases could be cured) and non-maleficence (undermines the will of God, according to religious groups and in addition, there is no guarantee of successful results). My stance on this debated topic is that humangeneticengineering should not be funded or researched, as there is no 100% guarantee that it will be successful, and in addition, I am a very religious person, and in my opinion, the body that a person has is a gift of God, and it should not be changed in any ways. However, there are still thousands of people with fatal diseases who have no hope for surviving, and humangeneticengineering could serve as the only hope for them. There are many sides that can be affected either positively or negatively if human...

...“GeneticEngineering”
Abstract
This paper is to discuss the pros and cons of geneticengineering. And whether geneticengineering can end world hunger?
Keywords: genetic, engineering, crops, pros, cons, world, hunger, technology, altered, tolerated, drought
Geneticengineering the deliberate modification of the characteristics of an organism by manipulating its genetic material (Bensel, 2011). Genetically modified foods (GM foods or GMO foods) are foods derived from genetically modified organisms, (GMOs). Genetically modified organisms have had specific changes introduced into their DNA by geneticengineering techniques. These techniques are much more precise than mutagenesis (mutation breeding) where an organism is exposed to radiation or chemicals to create a non-specific but stable change. Other techniques by which humans modify food organisms include selective breeding; plant breeding, and animal breeding, and somaclonal variation. GM foods were first put on the market in the early 1990s.
Geneticengineering of the human food supply is a highly contentious issue, with credentialed scientists arguing on each side. Most likely the controversy will continue. The effort by biotech companies to genetically modify food...

...that is being argued. Geneticengineering is a relatively new technique, involving the transfer of genes from one organism to another. It is also described as the “modification of genetic material by man that would otherwise be subject to the forces of nature only” (Carlson, n.d.). Geneticengineering is a powerful and potentially very dangerous tool; it changes the physical properties of organisms. Some say that geneticengineering is morally and ethically wrong and that they pose a threat to human health, the environment, and the global economy. Geneticengineering has benefited the world for the better in more aspects of life than one such as food, animals, and plants, and will continue to as technology and knowledge increases.
Since 1953, when scientists discovered the workings of the genetic system, scientists have learned how to change the composition of genes and how to change the basic traits of an organism. By snipping genes out of cells and adding them to other cells “molecular biologists have the ability to create new properties that have never been seen before” (Azargoon, 2002). This can be used to alter the properties of food. Scientists genetically alter food by using the genetic information from one organism, and than putting that specific trait into another organism that will take on that...

...GeneticEngineering
Introduction:
I. Imagine a world where everyone was perfect.
A. We would all look very similar with very little flaws.
B. We would excel in everything we did and never fail to produce anything but the best results.
C. We would live in a world where there was no competition.
1. Music artist would not exist along with Olympic champions or top celebrities because everyone would be perfect at everything.
D. Now this may sound like it could be the end of discrimination and competition for the world, however this is false.
1. Imperfection is what makes humans beings individuals.
2. It creates characteristics that deem each person different in their own special way.
II. In this day and age, when people speak of geneticengineering or biotechnology, they are no longer speaking of foods we eat, but they can instead be referring to designing their own offspring.
A. Ultimately, scientists are trying to allow humans to pick and choose the characteristics their child might have whether it be hair, eye color, height and more.
B. They are also trying to find ways to replace certain genes in a child that might be the causative agent of disease with nonthreatening genes.
III. Today, I am asking you to listen with an open mind as I present arguments that prove as to why geneticengineering is immoral and unethical.
A. I will first show you...

...Geneticengineering
Explain how this technology works.
Geneticengineering otherwise called genetic modification and can basically be described as the ‘direct manipulation of an organism’s genome’ which is the complete set of genetic material of an animal, plant or other living thing. This direct manipulation works by using modern DNA technology. This ‘involves the introduction of foreign DNA also known as synthetic genes into the organism of interest’ or curiousity.
Geneticengineering does not include traditional animal and plant breeding, in vitro fertilization, induction of polyploidy, mutagenesis and cell fusion techniques that do not use recombinant nucleic acids or a genetically modified organism in the process. Cloning and stem cell research, although not considered geneticengineering, are closely related and geneticengineering can be used within them. Synthetic biology is an emerging discipline that takes geneticengineering a step further by introducing artificially synthesized genetic material from raw materials into an organism.
Outline at least 2 advantages & disadvantages of having this technology.
Advantages;
• Better Taste, Nutrition and Growth Rate;
Genetically engineered crops are expected to have the capacity to grow on...

...GeneticEngineering in Food Production
GeneticEngineering in Food Production: Is it Safe, Wise, and Moral? Over the past couple of decades, the geneticengineering has been found and is regarded as the improvement of advanced technology in the field of biology. Ever since the first gene was cloned in 1973, genetic engineers have been pursuing at break-neck speed the unlimited possibilities promised by biotechnology .Their excitement, which has generated billions of investment dollars for the industry, is understandable. Bioengineering allows scientists to identify specific gene sequences responsible for particular characteristics and then to transfer the genes -- and the specific trait -- into entirely different species. One of the more current and controversial issue in the field of biotechnology is the use of bioengineering in food production. Scientists are experimenting with many different plants, but the geneticengineering of the tomato, dubbed Flavr Savr has been the most highly publicized project by far. The new tomato is supposed to boast more red and be tastier due to its longer staying time on the vine, thereby giving it more time to accumulate sweetness; yet, it will not rot or spoil because of its new genetic makeup. (Davidson 1993). With this advanced technology scientists argue that it could offer the greatest hope in...